Ezekiel Gilbert

Ezekiel Gilbert (March 25, 1756 – July 17, 1841) was an American lawyer and Federalist-era politician from Hudson, New York, who served in the New York State Assembly and represented New York in the United States House of Representatives from 1793 until 1797. Active in both state and national politics during the formative years of the United States, he was also a slave owner.

Gilbert was born in Middletown, Connecticut, on March 25, 1756. Little is recorded about his family background or early childhood, but he pursued classical studies in preparation for higher education, a common path for young men destined for the professions in the late colonial and early national periods. His early life in Connecticut would have exposed him to the political and intellectual currents surrounding the American Revolution, which shaped the emerging leadership class of the new nation.

He attended Yale College, where he was graduated in 1778. During his time at Yale, Gilbert was a member of the Brothers in Unity, a prominent student literary and debating society that cultivated oratorical skill, familiarity with classical texts, and engagement with contemporary political ideas. His education at Yale, completed in the midst of the Revolutionary War, provided him with the classical grounding and legal foundations that would underpin his later career in law and politics.

After leaving Yale, Gilbert studied law and was admitted to the bar. He subsequently moved to New York and commenced the practice of law in Hudson, New York, a growing river town that was becoming an important commercial and legal center in the post-Revolutionary period. His legal practice in Hudson brought him into local public life and helped establish his reputation within Columbia County, positioning him for election to public office.

Gilbert entered elective office as a member of the New York State Assembly, serving in 1789 and 1790. His legislative service coincided with the first years under the new federal Constitution, when New York and other states were adjusting their laws and institutions to the new national framework. Building on this experience, he was elected as a Pro-Administration candidate to the Third Congress and reelected as a Federalist to the Fourth Congress, serving in the United States House of Representatives from March 4, 1793, to March 3, 1797. In Congress he aligned with the Federalist program that supported a strong national government and closer ties to commercial and financial interests, reflecting the broader Federalist orientation of many New York leaders of the period.

At the conclusion of his congressional service in 1797, Gilbert returned to Hudson and resumed the practice of law. He remained active in state politics and was again elected to the New York State Assembly, serving additional terms in 1800 and 1801. His continued presence in the Assembly during this period of partisan realignment, as Jeffersonian Republicans gained strength in New York, underscored his ongoing role in state affairs and his identification with the Federalist tradition.

In addition to his legislative and congressional roles, Gilbert held local office in Columbia County. He served as clerk of Columbia County from 1813 to 1815, an administrative position that involved responsibility for maintaining official county records and legal documents at a time when county offices were central to local governance and the administration of justice. Throughout his adult life he was also a slave owner, a fact that places him within the broader context of slavery’s persistence in New York and the northern states during the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, even as gradual emancipation laws were being enacted.

Ezekiel Gilbert lived in Hudson, New York, for the remainder of his life. He died there on July 17, 1841, closing a long career that spanned the Revolutionary generation, the early Federalist period, and the decades of political transformation that followed.